Babe's Gone

I came into the living room last night looking for Charlie, "Babe, where's the..." only to be promptly informed, "Babe's gone." by little miss who, despite being entranced by her latest hearthrob prancing across the TV screen (Cinderella), somehow knows the latest whereabouts of the various family members (Lowes), and who also knows that "Babe" is interchangeable with "Daddy" and "Charlie Micka." Since when does a three year old call her daddy "Babe"?

Well, that whole thing got me thinking about who is gone and who is present in our lives today. Grandma and Grandpa (Shackelford) are gone. First Grandpa left and then Grandma departed four days later. I think she just checked out, knowing her time had come and hoping that she would be reunited with her husband of 65 years on the other side. Grandpa loved that sometimes difficult, often stubborn, lady so steadily for so long. I think (hope!) that's how Charlie will be with me. I miss Pockadooli and Chickabocka. See my photos of the (informal) memorial here. I actually had a really good week with everyone. Carrie flew in, and Courtney and Joey were there, and little Gia, and Kay and mom. For once we had what seemed like so much free time together. Usually when we come to town, everyone has to fit into a time slot. This time, everyone just cleared thier calendars and we had so much free-flowing time just to be together and support one another. The week did finally draw to a close- Charlie flew in on Friday; (Mina and I had driven over by ourselves since he had to work-- sadly, we were just 3 hours too late to say goodbye to Grandma- she passed quietly in her bedroom with Carol and Kay by her side while Mina and I were speeding through to the desert.) So our week in Tucson was over, but a new chapter in our lives was just begining: Grandma and Grandpa's dog, Allie Oops, was coming to live with us. Yes, a dog. In our house. For Real.

She's doing great. And I'm actually loving having a dog. Granted, she's a pretty easy pet. Charlie doesn't even think she's a real dog: she doesn't bark, doesn't wine, doesn't run after other animals. He says she's just a stomach on legs. Actually she is a tad (OK, more than a tad) overweight. Grandpa was prone to giving her short walks and frequent treats. But she's just very docile and sweet. She's good with Mina and Mina likes being able to boss her around. I guess our family is complete: One mom, one dad, one kid, one bird and one dog. Home Sweet Home.

Lunchtime Goodness

Look at this! Life is good when you can mosey over to the fridge for a bite and come out with this kind of goodness. Fresh Torta bread drizzled with olive oil, draped with a big, fat, fresh basil leaf, topped by mounds of Prosciutto (Parma Ham)- accompanied by organic cherry tomatoes and a perfectly sweet & sour plum. None of this would be possible without our trusted CSA (Be Wise Ranch) and the unexplicably leery coworkers at Rockwell Collins, where my husband works. See, they had their annual international potluck lunch the other day and the engineering group was asked to bring something "European." Of course, I only learned of this continential cuisine requirement the afternoon prior to the event: "I need you to make some kind of European dish and bring it in by 11 AM tomorrow!" Excuse me? I was still wondering what was going to show up on our dinner plates that night, let alone lunch tomorrow. Anyway, long story short, I had a melon, a pound of good fresh mozzarella, LOTS of tomatoes, and a thriving basil plant. You know where this is going...So I made Caprese Salad and picked up some Prosciutto to put on the melon for a beautiful and rather common Itallian Antipasto- hors d'oeuvres that you may see on almost any Itallian menu; hors d'oeuvres that I ate a million times in France, anyway. Well, it turns out that the personnel at Rockwell Collins weren't so fond of the Prosciutto. The Caprese salad was familiar and therefore 'safe', and that went down without a hitch, but the melon and ham- well, that was just downright scary to some. Charlie overheard comments like: "Oh! That's just wrong- in so many ways" Nobody touched the stuff. I felt kind of bad for Charlie, like maybe it was embarassing that he was the one to bring in the offending ham (raw [salted] meat on sweet melon! My God!) He even admitted to me at this point, that it was kinda wierd. So the entire dish was a waste, but luckily for me, I bought a double pack of the Proscuitto and the other half has been waiting for me in the fridge. Until now. Buon Appetito!

Cutting Cutting Cutting!

A trip to the dollar store yesterday yielded a number of fun items like tinkerbell sandwitch bags and princess brown paper bags, but most significantly, we picked up a pair of kid sissors for Mina. Oh was this a hit. In fact, her nap was entirely contingent on the promise of being able to use those shiney new clippers when she woke up. And use them she did. She slipped those things on like a born-again seamstress. And she was fast, like Edward Sissor Hands. Clip! Clip! Clip! Clip! Clip! In no time at all we had piles and piles of pink, and black, and white construction paper, newspaper, and old crayon drawings shredded to pieces. Good Job Mina! At one point, she sliced a bit of skin; the sensitive webbed part between the thumb and index finger. But she was so brave- didn't want to show it hurt, lest I take the dangerous new 'toy' from her.

The sissors seem a fitting seguay into her new life as a pre-schooler. A valuable skill that she will hone over the years. Don't they do alot of cutting and glueing in school? She starts school in a week and a half. The time has finally come- an impossible milestone in our lives together as mommy and daughter. OK OK, it's not kindergarten, it's only pre-school twice a week, but still! Our little home life will be forever changed. My constant shadow will now only be with me 'most' of the time...Still, I can't wait to see how she develops and am excited for the many new wonders she will encouter.

Starting to Soap

So today is my first day soaping! Charlie took Mina sailing and I took this opportunity to start my soap project. I've been surfing the web for the basic supplies (molds, organic melt-and-pour base, colors and fragrances), not to mention WAY too many hours looking at really beautiful soap designs, and finally all of the stuff has come in the mail and I'm ready to start concocting. Luckily, I promised to be easy on myself and not have expectations of producing the world's most gorgeous soap on my very first attempt. Let's just say hurray for humble beginnings. These soaps were made with .5 lb organic clear and .5 lb organic white melt-and-pour (MP) soap base, using a 4-ovals silicone mold, sudan (Brown!) mica with the white, and sparkle pearl with the clear, and all frangranced with sandlewood frangrance oil. All products (except mold) from DIY cosmetics
Noteable issues that will need more research/work:

The sudan (DARK BROWN) mica turned a positively ugly dusty pink color with the white base. I do understand that mica works best with clear base, but I thought it would at least be brown. not so. I think I just need to get the liquid (oxide or other type) of colorant from Bramble Berry for the non-clear bases. Or possibly use more mica.

Fingerprints! I used a silicone glossy mold and boy, it does come out glossy. So much so that fingerprints and smudges are very visible on both the clear and opaque parts. I did spritz with rubbing alcohol and rubbed out the prints, which seemed to help a bit. I'm not sure I'm in love with gloss on opaque colors anyway. For the clear embed projects, gloss will be important, but I want to get some matte silicone molds.

Soap is indeed soft. This is a primary issue with MP soap base, but perhaps I will try leaving it in the mold for MUCH longer next time. I did 3 hours today, and it was ready to come out, but I would like it to be harder, if possible.

I kind of ran out of base. The bottom opaque layer divided up evenly, but I didn't have enough of the clear top to cover the fourth bar. Wierd- I measured out the base: 1/2 lb. each.

Successes:

I was able to do a two-color layer just fine. I tried to score the first layer with a fork after 15 min. of setting, but this was too long and it just made a big gouge in the soap- will have to score much earlier or not at all- seems the layers stuck together just fine; although maybe this is something that only time will tell.

Smells great! I just love working with frangrance.

Do Bloggers Have House Cleaners?

Do all bloggers have house cleaners? I mean, how do you get it all done? I'm supposed to be keeping a running record of all the special times with my baby and also creating cute scrapbook/baby book pages to go along with my thoughts. When do most mom's do all this? Mina is down for her nap. I'm hoping for a good hour - but it could end up being closer to two. Here's all the things I have to do:

-call the doctor's office
-make and eat lunch
-put away the groceries I just bought
-write something deep and meaningful about motherhood and my sweet baby girl
-sweep the floor downstairs
-sweep and mop the kitchen
-vacume upstairs
-do a load of laundry
-call the painter back to figure out when he can start the cabinets, and coordinate this with the countertop installation
-figure out what to do with the plant that fell out of it's small pot
-prep for dinner (or else just wing it later, when I've finally put her down and am ready to relax)
-car registration renewal on-line. Shouldn't take long, but I already wasted precious time earlier as I got to the final step and thier server went down. (I can just imagine the whole state of California imploding soon. Once we're bankrupt, all the government workers will just walk out and chaos will ensue...)

Anyway, I guess I'll just choose the most immediate tasks, and if she keeps sleeping then maybe
I'll get even more done...